Atrial Fibrillation (cont.)

Daniel Lee Kulick, MD, FACC, FSCAI

Dr. Kulick received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Southern California, School of Medicine. He performed his residency in internal medicine at the Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and a fellowship in the section of cardiology at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology.

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

What are the symptoms of atrial fibrillation?

Many patients with atrial fibrillation have no symptoms and are unaware of the
abnormal heart rhythm. The most common symptom of atrial fibrillation is
palpitations, an uncomfortable awareness of the rapid and irregular heartbeat.
Other symptoms of atrial fibrillation are caused by the diminished delivery of
blood to the body. These symptoms include:

What are the complications of atrial fibrillation?

Heart failure

If the heart is unable to pump an adequate amount of blood to the body, as
in some people with atrial fibrillation, the body begins to compensate by retaining fluid. This
can lead to a condition called heart failure.
Heart failure results in the
accumulation of fluid in the lower legs (edema) and the lungs (pulmonary edema).
Pulmonary edema makes breathing more difficult and reduces the ability of the
lung to add oxygen to and remove carbon dioxide from the blood. The levels of
oxygen in the blood can drop, and the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood can
increase, a complication called respiratory failure. This is a life-threatening
complication. In patients with underlying heart disease, the development of atrial fibrillation may result in up to a 25% decrease in the pumping function of the heart.

Stroke

Quivering of the atria
in atrial fibrillation causes blood inside the atria to stagnate. Stagnant blood tends to
form blood clots along the walls of the atria. Sometimes, these blood clots dislodge,
pass through the ventricles, and lodge in the brain, lungs, and other
parts of the body. This process is called embolization. One common complication of
atrial fibrillation is a blood clot that travels to the brain and causes the sudden onset
of one-sided paralysis of the extremities and/or the facial muscles (an embolic
stroke). A blood clot that travels to the lungs can cause injury to the
lung tissues (pulmonary infarction), and symptoms of chest pain and shortness of
breath. When blood clots travel to the body's extremities, cold hands, feet, or legs
may occur suddenly because of the lack of blood.